This variant of the Atlas V has a five-meter-wide composite payload fairing, and five solid rocket boosters shown here.

United Launch Alliance

Here the satellite is encapsulated in the payload fairing.

United Launch Alliance

The Advanced Extremely High Frequency-6 (AEHF-6) communications system is mounted on top of the Atlas V rocket.

And voila, here's a rocket ready to launch.

United Launch Alliance

And on its way to the pad.

United Launch Alliance

4:30pm ET Update: After an issue with ground support equipment, United Launch Alliance got its Atlas V rocket off the ground a little more than an hour after its launch window opened on Thursday. The first phase of the launch was a success, and now the rocket's Centaur upper stage is pushing the AEHF-6 satellite toward a geostationary transfer orbit. The upper stage will release the satellite 5 hours and 40 minutes after the launch.

This is the first time a satellite has flown into space under the auspices of the U.S. Space Force.

Original post: United Launch Alliance says its Atlas V rocket is ready to launch on Thursday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is set for 2:57pm (18:57 UTC) for the national security mission, which has a two-hour launch window. This is the first launch under the command of the newly constituted US Space Force.

For this mission, the Atlas V rocket will boost the sixth and final satellite in a constellation of military communications satellites in geostationary orbit. The "Advanced Extremely High Frequency" (AEHF) satellites are replacing the older Milstar communications system. The individual satellites cost $850 million each, and this AEHF-6 satellite to be launched Thursday was built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems. The previous five AEHF satellites launched on Atlas V rockets from 2010 to 2019.

While United Launch Alliance has scaled back some aspects of its outreach for this mission due to the spread of Covid-19—for example, a social media event has already been canceled—the company is following protocols outlined in its internal Pandemic Plan and pressing ahead with essential activities.

Further Reading

Some spaceports around the world have closed down in recent days due to the spread of the virus. Europe has suspended activity at its primary spaceport in French Guiana, and Rocket Lab announced Wednesday that its next mission, scheduled for March 30, will not launch on time in light of New Zealand's heightened response to the pandemic.

"We commend the government for taking this drastic but necessary step to limit the spread of COVID-19," the company said on its website. "In the days, weeks, and months to come, we’ll be following the advice of the government and health authorities to protect our teams in the United States and New Zealand."

But at the US military's main spaceports in Florida, where the Atlas V rocket is due to launch, and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, essential launch opportunities appear to be continuing, at least for now.

United Launch Alliance will provide a live webcast of the launch, beginning about 20 minutes before the opening of the launch window.

Having a national "space force" brings home how weird things get when we project national borders into space.

You mean that every piece of hardware that is launched into orbit is territory of the country that put it there? (Well it may be a bit more complicated when one country launches another's payload but technically) as for borders that one would see on the map, legally the generally accepted point where a country's sovereign airspace becomes "international waters" is at 100km

Having a national "space force" brings home how weird things get when we project national borders into space.

Not borders, but assets. Much like a US Navy ship is not a "border" but a national asset and it patrols through both domestic and international waters. Should it sink, it is still a national asset. Should it remain on the bottom of the ocean for 400 years, it is still a national asset. Same goes for satellites.

Having a national "space force" brings home how weird things get when we project national borders into space.

Not borders, but assets. Much like a US Navy ship is not a "border" but a national asset and it patrols through both domestic and international waters. Should it sink, it is still a national asset. Should it remain on the bottom of the ocean for 400 years, it is still a national asset. Same goes for satellites.

Yeah, space law is a real and increasingly-complex thing. If we're going to push forward with commercialization, especially stuff like asteroid mining, we've got some major unanswered questions that will need answering in the near term.

As for the Space Force, I hope it is one of the first things erased by the next administation (well, in the top 1000 anyway, so many Trump stupidities, so little time); the last thing we need is another branch of the military with no reason to exist other than to sharpie "space" and "military" on Trumps legacy.

As for the mission of the Space Force, may it prosper, as it reintegrates quietly back into its proper place in the other military branches.

Same operation under a different name. Same people in different suits. Same needs provided to the same forces. Happy flying.

And still under the USAF, the only thing the distinction might do is make the budget for specifically space activities clearer, and possibly give them their own discretionary portion, I dislike the name as it conveys the wrong kind of image, seeing as for the foreseeable future, the only directly offensive capability that might make sense on a sat platform is a space based electronic warfare suite, even if there's interest in Starship P2P, that would likely fall under AF logistics, specifically the area that works with airlines to supplement logistics in non-combat (but combat adjacent) zones.

As for the Space Force, I hope it is one of the first things erased by the next administation (well, in the top 1000 anyway, so many Trump stupidities, so little time); the last thing we need is another branch of the military with no reason to exist other than to sharpie "space" and "military" on Trumps legacy.

As for the mission of the Space Force, may it prosper, as it reintegrates quietly back into its proper place in the other military branches.

I'm afraid it's here to stay. This was not a Trump idea, but one that's been bandied about in congress for a while. Trump just latched on to it and got it legislated.

As for the Space Force, I hope it is one of the first things erased by the next administation (well, in the top 1000 anyway, so many Trump stupidities, so little time); the last thing we need is another branch of the military with no reason to exist other than to sharpie "space" and "military" on Trumps legacy.

As for the mission of the Space Force, may it prosper, as it reintegrates quietly back into its proper place in the other military branches.

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Elon Musk - both very smart people - praised this initiative many times.Air Force was originally also considered silly.

As for the Space Force, I hope it is one of the first things erased by the next administation (well, in the top 1000 anyway, so many Trump stupidities, so little time); the last thing we need is another branch of the military with no reason to exist other than to sharpie "space" and "military" on Trumps legacy.

As for the mission of the Space Force, may it prosper, as it reintegrates quietly back into its proper place in the other military branches.

As for the Space Force, I hope it is one of the first things erased by the next administation (well, in the top 1000 anyway, so many Trump stupidities, so little time); the last thing we need is another branch of the military with no reason to exist other than to sharpie "space" and "military" on Trumps legacy.

As for the mission of the Space Force, may it prosper, as it reintegrates quietly back into its proper place in the other military branches.

Are you still mad that Truman split the Air Force from the Army?

Yes

Edit:

In my opinion the U.S. has only two branches of the military, the Army and the Navy. The Air Force is a corporation and the Marines are a cult.

So I have heard this is basically just a subdivision of the US air-force, the same some that was doing this job before, and Trump just gave it a new logo and name?

Yes and no. It's the first step in setting up a separate force, much like the AF was originally part of the Army. Space is a different medium than air, sea, or land. It requires different capabilities and understandings of how to project force, influence, defend, etc. We're still in the infancy of space operations, so the Space Force will likely remain under the Air Force for some years/decades to come, but will eventually be mature enough to graduate to independent ops.

As for the Space Force, I hope it is one of the first things erased by the next administation (well, in the top 1000 anyway, so many Trump stupidities, so little time); the last thing we need is another branch of the military with no reason to exist other than to sharpie "space" and "military" on Trumps legacy.

As for the mission of the Space Force, may it prosper, as it reintegrates quietly back into its proper place in the other military branches.

Are you still mad that Truman split the Air Force from the Army?

Yes

Edit:

In my opinion the U.S. has only two branches of the military, the Army and the Navy. The Air Force is a corporation and the Marines are a cult.

Kidding, just a bit of inter-force humor.

You're just jealous that the first thing the AF does when setting up a base is carve out the golf course...

As for the Space Force, I hope it is one of the first things erased by the next administation (well, in the top 1000 anyway, so many Trump stupidities, so little time); the last thing we need is another branch of the military with no reason to exist other than to sharpie "space" and "military" on Trumps legacy.

As for the mission of the Space Force, may it prosper, as it reintegrates quietly back into its proper place in the other military branches.

Are you still mad that Truman split the Air Force from the Army?

Yes

Edit:

In my opinion the U.S. has only two branches of the military, the Army and the Navy. The Air Force is a corporation and the Marines are a cult.

Kidding, just a bit of inter-force humor.

You're just jealous that the first thing the AF does when setting up a base is carve out the golf course...

As for the Space Force, I hope it is one of the first things erased by the next administation (well, in the top 1000 anyway, so many Trump stupidities, so little time); the last thing we need is another branch of the military with no reason to exist other than to sharpie "space" and "military" on Trumps legacy.

As for the mission of the Space Force, may it prosper, as it reintegrates quietly back into its proper place in the other military branches.

Are you still mad that Truman split the Air Force from the Army?

Yes

Edit:

In my opinion the U.S. has only two branches of the military, the Army and the Navy. The Air Force is a corporation and the Marines are a cult.

Kidding, just a bit of inter-force humor.

You're just jealous that the first thing the AF does when setting up a base is carve out the golf course...

Well, they also make the officer’s club, really nice housing, a rec center, auto hobby shop, bowling alley, and then tell congress they are out of money to build air strips.

Seriously, I have been on both Air Force and Navy bases. The Air Force bases are pristine and beautiful and the Navy bases look like they are about to fall apart

Having a national "space force" brings home how weird things get when we project national borders into space.

Not borders, but assets. Much like a US Navy ship is not a "border" but a national asset and it patrols through both domestic and international waters. Should it sink, it is still a national asset. Should it remain on the bottom of the ocean for 400 years, it is still a national asset. Same goes for satellites.

Yeah, space law is a real and increasingly-complex thing. If we're going to push forward with commercialization, especially stuff like asteroid mining, we've got some major unanswered questions that will need answering in the near term.

Well any ISRU really, i am personally of the opinion that right now it is too early to worry about astroid mining, mainly because of the cost of the people who would make it easier to turn the resources into something interesting where the wealth is (Earth) and everything they would need, raw materials has to fight against terrestrial mining and recycling, at the handicap of transport costs. I suspect at least initially the cost/benefit of competing over resources verses finding alternative sources is going to reduce most conflict. I mean yeah Lunar water is only available on the poles, but i don't see Luna as much more than an outpost anyways. With Mars there may be only a handful of really ideal locations to start out, near an underground glacier, mineral rich area with good solar potential, but even if we extrapolate several decades ahead, there are only a couple groups of countries that could feasibly undertake the challenge. As for astroids there's a lot of them, and even if you could get an economic case working for it, having the minerals arrive at a different time from your astroid mining competition by using different astroids can help the business case

As for the Space Force, I hope it is one of the first things erased by the next administation (well, in the top 1000 anyway, so many Trump stupidities, so little time); the last thing we need is another branch of the military with no reason to exist other than to sharpie "space" and "military" on Trumps legacy.

As for the mission of the Space Force, may it prosper, as it reintegrates quietly back into its proper place in the other military branches.

Are you still mad that Truman split the Air Force from the Army?

Yes

Edit:

In my opinion the U.S. has only two branches of the military, the Army and the Navy. The Air Force is a corporation and the Marines are a cult.

Kidding, just a bit of inter-force humor.

You're just jealous that the first thing the AF does when setting up a base is carve out the golf course...

Maybe true, but it is not a completely facetious decision. In time of emergency, the relatively remote area of the golf course on certain bases is designated for various uses: for example, we used it as a mammoth aircraft weapons depot (ie bomb dump) or simply as a place to store refuse until it could be dealt with more permanently.

So I have heard this is basically just a subdivision of the US air-force, the same some that was doing this job before, and Trump just gave it a new logo and name?

Yes and no. It's the first step in setting up a separate force, much like the AF was originally part of the Army. Space is a different medium than air, sea, or land. It requires different capabilities and understandings of how to project force, influence, defend, etc. We're still in the infancy of space operations, so the Space Force will likely remain under the Air Force for some years/decades to come, but will eventually be mature enough to graduate to independent ops.

Which isn't a bad thing, the idea existed for years under the names "Space Guard" and "Space Core" both of which are more representative to what they are likely to be responsible for.